Success in the most difficult circumstances

This article by the UK Director is a reflection on a key question about our MOEP programme - ‘are we succeeding?’

It is September (2026) and the new term in Malawi is just beginning. Our Mbedza Orphan Education Programme (MOEP) supports students with the help necessary to complete four years of Secondary Education. Without this support these students would not be in school. In fact most young people in Malawi are not in Secondary Education and if they start they do not manage to finish and the reason is poverty. The 2022 UNICEF study showed that 33% of children complete primary, 23% complete two years of secondary and 15% the full four years of secondary. For rural areas and amongst the poorest 20% of the population, 11% complete primary and 2% complete secondary.

We recently applied to a foundation for some funding and their first question was ‘how do you measure success?’ The success of our programme is that our students stay in school, their attendance records are excellent and they complete four years - our completiion rate is 98%. The effort and focus required to ensure that these vulnerable students can stay in school is massive and we are so grateful to our monthly sponsors who enable us to do this. What does this effort include?

We asked a secondary school to share their attendance data with us and the absence rates in Form 3 were between 30 to 40%. The three main reasons were hunger, inability to pay school fees and illness. Girls would say they were ill when they meant it was the time of the month and they didn’t have any sanitary provision. When there is no food in the home you don’t go to school you go looking for food. In some cases you obtain food by any means necessary and for girls that can lead to very undesirable choices.

Our MOEP programme is addressing this by providing emergency food support with the provision of maize and food resilience training working closely with Mbedza’s environment programme. This all links closely to our home visits where the situation of each home can be considered. Home visits are a significant cost but it is part of the programme that gives the team the insights into each student’s food situation. (Photos below - maize distribution and food resilience training using Gamba Tinsmith stoves.)

For girls we have our sanitary kit provision. You can understand the impact of these washable sanitary kits when a student (age 16) who has no provision shares their story - 'before receiving the pads, I relied on nyanda (traditional cloth materials) for menstrual management. Nyanda became wet quickly and was difficult to manage while at school. As a result, I regularly missed classes during menstruation. I recall a painful experience when I stained my uniform shortly before break time. My friends noticed the stain and helped by lending me a chitenje(wrapper). I later requested permission from my teacher to go home. At home, my mother explained that purchasing disposable sanitary pads was not financially possible and advised me to return home whenever my period started while at school. This affected my academic performance. Missing lessons made it difficult to keep up with classwork, and I often struggled to understand topics that I had missed.’

Daphney on a home visit.

We provide sex and relationship education for both boys and girls through our motivation days and Girls Nest Club. We have continued to improve this through our own research into knowledge and attitudes amongst our students. Our MOEP team are supported by other Mbedza staff including our HIV counsellors. This research has led to the creation of a new toolkit and we continue to improve this provision.

Our safegurding procedures contribute significantly to keeping students in school. Our team conduct what we call pre-emptive safeguarding risk assessments for each student based on what they discover about the home situation. This includes safeguarding concerns in the widest sense - mistreatment, sexual exploitation, hunger and neglect to name a few. In 2025 to 2026 we had 86 students in the programme and we had at any one time between 5 to 8 active safeguarding situations. Sometimes, intervention will involve other external agencies. In many cases these situations are brought on by desperation caused by extreme poverty. Where necessary we will visit the home more regularly and create tailored packages of support.

MOEP students at a motivation day

Although we don’t make exam results our main success target, nevertheless, keeping students in school through all the support mechanisms that we have created does lead to results we can be proud of. We encourage our students to take part in study circles and in the final year provide at cost the opportunity for extra lessons. Our MSCE results are often above national average and we are waiting right now for our 2026 results. We are aware however that at Mallindi school the top performing student this year is one of our MOEP students Nathaniel and we celebrate with him and his success.

Prisca congratulates Nathaniel on his success.

Moving from secondary school to other education and work in Malawi is extremely difficult. Being one of the economically poorest countries in the world (ranking 172 out of 193 on the Human Development Index) provides very few opportunities for young people. Climate change shocks, cyclones, poor harvests and sustained high inflation caused by wars in other parts of the world (think high fuel and fertiliser costs) have been crippling. The current El Nino is projected to cause a GDP reduction of 2.9% this year. We count it a success therefore that in recent years we have been able to employ two MOEP students as part of our Mbedza environment team. James and Kenneth joined us in 2023 and they have proven to be brilliant. I still remember the day they we offered them jobs and asked ‘what does this mean to you?’ They said ‘it means we can put food on the table.’ To add to this now we are creating two more part time positions for MOEP students to join our environemt team in October 2026.

It is a major success that we have been able to sustain this programme. Since 2023 inflation has been over 30% and even this year although it has dropped it is still over 20%. Logically if your project costs are running 30% higher each year but your income is only growing by a smaller amount the programme is unsustainable. Despite these pressures we have made decisions to enhance and improve our provision as part of our commitment to doing everything necessary to enable students to stay in school. In particular the price of maize has meant that sustaining our food support has been very difficult. The reality is that our monthly support from our sponsors does not cover the cost of the programme and for each of the last three years the shortfall has been around £6000-£7000. We count it a success therefore that we have been able to fill this gap and are particularly grateful to the Coles-Medlock Foundation for their assistance as well as other donors who have contributed with one-off donations.

Finally, our success is down to two amazing staff - Daphney and Prisca as well as the wider Mbedza team who interact with our student in different capacities. Daphney and Prisca go beyond the call of duty in supporting our students. In the photos below they are presenting to students.

I think we are succeeding but it is challenging. To our monthly sponsors and other donors, you are making a such a big difference in the lives of these young people and we are very grateful.